The hate that killed Tyre Nichols

The recent brutal beating and murder of Tyre Nichols—a Black man—who died on January 10, at the hands of five Black police officers in the Memphis Police Department, underscores the fact that the pathology of anti-Blackness is alive and well in the hearts and minds of some White folk, as well as some Black folk in America. 

Anti-Blackness is a byproduct of the false ideology of White supremacy and Black inferiority, woven within the fabric of America, so much so that even the victims of this deadly ideology​​—including some Black people​​​—have internalized it. 

James Baldwin said, “The reason people think it’s important to be White is that they think it’s important not to be Black.” 

Anti-Black hate is as old as America and as American as apple pie and baseball. You don’t need to go back in our history to see evidence of this pernicious reality. 

In 2015, Dylann Roof—a 21-year-old White man—walked into a church in Charleston, SC, and murdered nine Black people in cold blood. It was reported that the police officers who captured Roof treated him to fast food before escorting him to the police station. 

In May 2022, a gunman—an 18-year-old White man—murdered 10 Black people in a Buffalo, NY, supermarket targeting Black people. There are other cases of anti-Black violence, but I will stop here. 

In both notable cases, anti-Black hate was their motive which fueled their terror. In his book, “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul,” Eddie S, Glaude Jr., wrote, “a host of assumptions about who Black people are and what they are capable of shape everything about how we live in this country.” 

After viewing the horrific video of the beating of Tyre, I heard news reporters and commentators, primarily White, question whether the murder of Tyre was a racial issue, pointing out that the officers were also Black. 

These questions reveal either a sincere ignorance or a willful indifference to racism in America. I submit that being Black does not preclude a Black person from subscribing to anti-Blackness and supporting racist ideologies. 

For example, Candace Owens, a Black conservative, and anti-Black activist said, “Black Americans are the most murderous group in America,” in a 2021 Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson. 

There is no evidence to support her assertion. However, this is what she—a Black woman—and other Black people believe about Black people. Do not be deceived. Anti-Black, self-hatred held by Black people does not negate the reality of racism. Race is a social construct, but racism is real and is facilitated by global White supremacy. 

Black lives still matter, even when Black lives are taken by Black people. I believe the five Black police officers who murdered Tyre Nichols were acting according to the societal norm of racism and anti-Black hate. 

In the “Myth of Race, The Reality of Racism: Critical Essays,” Dr. Mahmoud El-Kati eloquently said, “Custom is more powerful than the force of written law. Habits and social conventions influence individual attitudes. A collective outlook, a collective myth, produces collective behavior patterns.” 

It doesn’t make a difference how many anti-racism laws are passed or how much “racial sensitivity” training a person is forced to undergo to keep their job or even how many Black people are elected to office, lead organizations, or corporations: anti-Black sentiment is pervasive in American culture. 

The Black officers freely and readily beat Tyre Nichols. They knew they were being recorded because of the body cameras they wore. They did it knowingly and without shame or fear of any consequences. 

They treated Tyre as if his life didn’t matter and as if he was expendable. They wrongly believed they could do what White officers have done and still do to many Black men, women, and children with impunity, for far too long. They saw Tyre the same way, so many Americans—White and Black—see Black people—as interlopers in a society built by the forced labor of our enslaved ancestors. Anti-Blackness still prevailed. 

In his book, “The Racial Contract,” Charles Mills writes, “We live in a world which has been foundationally shaped for the past five hundred years by the realities of European domination and the gradual consolidation of global White supremacy.” 

Let’s be clear, the pathology of White supremacy, which produced anti-Black hate, murdered Tyre Nichols. I am not saying the five Black police officers are not responsible for his death. On the contrary, they are 100 percent accountable and should be punished to the law’s limit. They deserve whatever punishment they receive and probably more. 

What I am saying is that anti-Black hate was the driving force and underlining cause of Tyre’s murder, as it was in the murders of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Stephone Clark, Botham Jean, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Patrick Lyoya, Nina Adams, LaShanda Anderson, Deresha Armstrong, Kisha Arrone, Crystalline Barnes, India Beaty, Dereshia Blackwell, Jonie Block, Alexia Christian, Decynthia Clements, Monique Jenee Deckard, Cynthia Fields, Janisha Fonville, Korryn Gaines, and Francine Graham. 

And the list goes on. Until anti-Blackness is slain, there will be more Tyre Nichols. 

James Trice is the CEO of the Public Policy Project.